New Jersey lawmakers have backed a bill that would ban licensed counselors from practicing “conversion therapy” on those under 18 as a means to changing their sexual orientation.

It’s nothing less than mind-numbing that such a thing would have to be legislated.

Now advancing to the full Senate, the proposal would prohibit therapists from forcing young people to turn against their very nature with an array of techniques that sound as chilling as those in “A Clockwork Orange.”

The Senate Health Committee heard heartbreaking testimony last week from young people who bear the psychological scars of “therapies” including electric shocks and other abuse to steer them away from homosexuality because their parents or guardians could not accept them as gay.

Mordechai Levovitz, co-director for Jewish Queer Youth, a support group for about 700 people from the orthodox Jewish community, said his parents started his conversion therapy when was 6 years old because he wanted to play with dolls.

Perhaps the most eloquent testimony, however, was the silence from those who have committed suicide rather than live such a tortured lie.

Conversion therapy has been dismissed by every credible mental health association in the country. It’s been condemned by the American Psychological Association, the American Counseling Association and the American Psychiatric Association.

It’s difficult to believe that any licensed therapist in this day and age would deal in such deception and snake oil. But the bill’s Assembly sponsor, Tim Eustace (D-Bergen), says he introduced the measure after several young constituents came to his office complaining that the practice still exists.

And there were speakers at last week’s hearing who said conversion therapy has helped thousands of people live happily as heterosexuals. One man, a proponent of the practice, told lawmakers he was a former homosexual.

There’s an inherent danger in this bill; if licensed counselors are banned from such therapy, might misguided parents enlist the unregulated services of charlatans who promise to "straighten out" their kids? Who knows what abusive techniques might exist in such an underground arsenal?

Still, the proposed statute would send a strong, clear message that homosexuality is not a disease to be cured, that gay kids have a right to their identity.

Further, it demonstrates that New Jersey will not tolerate the child abuse inherent in this discredited and shameful practice.